Charter school leader overcomes resistance, obstacles

Erika Donalds never set out to be a change maker — and now a statewide rainmaker — in the area of charter schools.

But she got there the way many entrepreneurs do: she saw an unmet need and figured out a way to fill it. That goes back to 2013, when she and her husband, Byron Donalds, struggled to find schools with a classical , broad-based education in Naples for their three sons. First she served a term on the Collier County School Board. (Byron Donalds is also in politics; a Republican, he’s a two-term state representative from Naples who ran for and won a seat in U.S Congress in 2020.)